Congress shouldn’t create another newborn benefit

A bipartisan group of lawmakers recently introduced the Supporting Newborn Parents Act of 2026, which would provide parents up to $2,000 when a child is born. The impulse is understandable. Babies are expensive, and many of the bills arrive immediately: hospital costs, diapers, formula, cribs, car seats, and lost wages from time away from work.

But Congress does not need to create another newborn benefit program to address that problem. It should first make existing family benefits more flexible, starting with Trump Accounts, the newborn subsidy Congress enacted just last year. Giving parents better access to existing benefits when they are most needed would help new families without driving the federal government further into debt.